Vocal - Samarth Nagarkar
Tabla - Meghashyam Keshav
Harmonium - Rohan Prabhudesai
The Baithak concert series is dedicated to the fond memories of Mr. Chandrakant Rao.
Samarth Nagarkar
Samarth Nagarkar is known for his captivating performances of authentic, traditionally rich approach towards raga- exposition and gayaki. He is described by critics as one of today’s foremost torchbearers of Indian classical vocal traditions.
After years of rigorous training under Pandit Ulhas Kashalkar, Samarth graduated as Grade A scholar of the ITC Sangeet Research Academy, Kolkata in 2009. Prior to this, he trained under Pt. Dinkar Kaikini in Mumbai. By virtue of this intense and extensive guru-shishya parampara training Samarth’s performance repertoire encompasses styles, ragas and compositions of three prominent gharanas – Gwalior, Agra and Jaipur.
Samarth has performed in several noted venues and concert platforms in India and the USA such as the ITC Sangeet Sammelan, Bangalore, Devnandan Ubhayakar Yuva Sangeet Utsav, Bangalore, Habitat Center, Delhi, N.C.P.A., Mumbai, The Ali Akbar College of Music, California, Basant Bahar, California and
Universities such as Stanford, Indiana, UT Southwestern, UPenn and PSU.
The most notable of the awards and accolades Samarth has received is the President’s Award for 1st prize in the All India Radio National Music Competition, 2000. The Ministry of Culture, Govt. of India awarded him a Fellowship in 2009.
A former head of K. K. Kapoor Sangeet Research Academy, Lucknow, Samarth is also known for his articulate and informative lecture-demonstrations and interactive workshops on Indian Music.
Currently based in New York Samarth is performing all over North America. He is only the faculty of reputed institutions such as Chhandayan Center for Indian Music.
Meghashyam Keshav
Meghashyam Keshav started learning Tabla at the age of 6. He has trained from Pandit Vishwanath Nakod, Pandit Udayaraj Karpur , Pandit Ravindra Yavagal and is currently studying under the world renowned maestro Pandit Anindo Chatterjee. He has also trained in Mridangam from Vidwan Arjun Kumar. He has performed numerous tabla solo concerts as well as accompanied vocal and instrumental music. Some of the artists he has performed with include Pt. Brij Narayan, Pt.Nayan Ghosh, Pt.Vinayak Torvi, Pt.Ram Deshpande, Pt.Ronu Majumdar, Pt.Rakesh Chaurasia, Vidwan Shashank, Vidwan Nagaraj and Manjunath, etc.
He is an engineer by profession and is currently working with Tata Consultancy Services.
Rohan Prabhudesai
Rohan Prabhudesai has been actively studying music for the past 14 years. He began his training in Hindustani classical music on the harmonium with Gokurdas Rasaikar, a disciple of Smt. Nirmala Kakode. Later, he continued this musical pursuit under the guidance of Dr. Kedar Naphade, a senior disciple of Pt. Tulsidas Borkar.
He also has had the privilege of learning from Pt. Borkar himself for extended periods of time. He has won first place in the D.V. Paluskar All-India competition in the senior category when he was 12 years old. Last year, he was awarded the Jyotsna Award by the Chhandayan School of Music in NYC for his dedication to the art.
Aside from Indian classical music, he also draws interest from Western classical music. He has been taking regular piano lessons from Mr. Edwin Lopez, the concert master and conductor of Crescent Avenue Presbyterian church music program. He has given numerous recitals and fundraising concerts on the piano.
Rohan has recently graduated from New York University's Stern School of Business.